How do I reference a PDF from a government website

Answers

As far as I'm concerned with a pdf that exists freely on the web (as opposed to a journal article that is found via subscription) you have two options - treat it like paper (which makes for a reference much like a book, or a pamphlet or a report depending on what you have there) - or you can treat it like a webpage. Treating it like a webpage does allow the person to find the material where you found it - and seeing as the pdf does not live behind a paywall then there shouldn't be too much problem with someone wanting to follow the url to the source. So if you were tossing up which of the two options to choose I might advise webpage.

As a final note, if the url of the pdf is very long and unwieldy you can use the url of the page the pdf links from, if its reasy to spot the pdf link on the preceding page.

The report convention is more or less a book reference type with the added detail of the report number after the title. If your paper has a report number then treating it as such is ok - though in a way this means that the person who might look at your reference list will only be able to find the paper report which might be harder than looking online.

An installation user guide, if its in paper form, is probably best referenced much like a book - you'll have an author, a year, a title, a publisher and a place.

If it's online then a website reference is appropriate - you have again an author a year a title, a publisher (the website) and a place (if you can find where the website is created) - plus the date you viewed the website and the url.